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Seamless Experience

The customer experience, or brand experience as I call it, is a critical business component these days. Focusing on the brand experience has become an important way for an organization to achieve success – and differentiate themselves from the competition. What exactly is the brand experience? How does it differ from customer service? And why should your brand be concerned about it? Let’s dive in!

What is ‘Brand Experience‘?

I look at organizations from a holistic perspective, bringing everything the company does into the picture in order to understand how it is performing. I define the brand experience as the sum of all interactions a customer has with a brand. This can include everything from the initial awareness or discovery of a brand, product, or service – progressing through the purchase and use of those products and services. Together these all add up to the critical moments – the touch points – the create an organization’s overall brand experience.

How Operations Affect the Brand Experience

As a brand strategist, I’m often focused on developing a brand that the team clearly understands, believes in, and agrees to live by its values in order to attract, engage and develop deep relationships with its ideal audience. Working through the internal processes are important, but they are only one side of the equation.

Once the team has a solid understanding of the brand, what it stands for and how it works to improve the lives of its customers, the next step is to evaluate how the team processes and handles the customer experience. In other words, the operations and mechanics of the processes in order to deliver a seamless customer experience are just as critical to the overall brand experience.

An example I like to share is Starbucks’ mobile app. The mobile app is a fantastic extension of the Starbucks brand and offers a simple, seamless experience to order, customize, choose a coffeehouse location, and pay for your drinks. However, the coffeehouses sometimes are understaffed and overworked, leading to an operations breakdown.

The mobile app generally provides an estimate of 3 to 8 minutes until your order is ready. There have been times when arriving at a Starbucks to pick up my pre-ordered and paid for coffee, I’ve had to wait an extra 15 minutes plus to get my order, thus hurting the experience I just had with the mobile app.

The operations of the coffeehouse are not aligned to the brand promise made by the mobile app.

I recently ordered a movie from Best Buy to pick up in-store before closing. The online process was simple, seamless, and easy. I received an email immediately letting me know I’d receive a second email when the product was ready to pick up.

At the store, the brand experience quickly fell apart. The product was not at the in-store pickup area as the email stated. The Best Buy employee did not appear to be well-trained, causing me to question if I had purchased the movie or was at the correct store.

Again, the operations did not align with the brand promise from the online experience, which then hurt the overall brand experience.

Operations matter.

What’s the Key Learning From These Stories?

The brand experience moves us beyond the traditional definition of customer service – those individual moments when employees are providing direct service to customers. It’s about the bigger picture of what happens before, during, and after these service interactions.

To truly gain an understanding of customer [brand] experience, you must know that it encompasses every aspect of a company’s offering – from the quality of its customer care to its reputation management, marketing, packaging, product and service features, ease of use, reliability, and beyond.

Three Actions to Improve the Brand Experience

Develop a Shared Purpose – a shared purpose is a clear explanation of what you want the brand experience to at an emotional level. It is the essential foundation on which all other service decisions can be developed. Think of it as combining your vision and mission, explaining to employees why the brand exists and what it stands for. This shared purpose is your primary tool for getting all team members on the same page.

Align Operations to the Brand Experience – many organizations are moving online and with that, they are developing new customer experiences. But what happens when the online experience and the physical experience are tied together, such as with the Starbucks or Best Buy examples? By assessing the brand promise you are making online and aligning it to your operations, you can deliver a consistent, seamless experience to your customers.

Treat Exceptional Service as an Economic Asset – the experience your brand delivers determines the lifetime customer relationships, so the return on investment for providing consistently exceptional service clearly justifies the short-term cost.

Brand experience is about much more than just customer service. It is about fostering employee engagement, truly understanding your customer, and developing a plan for delivering exceptional brand experiences on a consistent basis.

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A large developer is disrupting the apartment rental brand experience by introducing upscale dorms for adults. Featuring smaller private living spaces with more shared amenities to foster interaction, engagement, and friendships with your neighbors. Will co-living take off like shared office space? Let’s dive in!

I’ve noticed a big shift among my colleagues, friends, and peers as far as where they choose to live. When I made the jump from Honolulu to Chicago, it was a pretty big change. Going from driving a BMW through Waikiki to walking everywhere and learning to navigate a bustling city with constantly changing weather took some getting use to.

At first, living in the city felt sort of like a sacrifice. Attaching myself to the BMW, it felt as though I had to give up something big. But over time, that feeling has flipped 180 degrees to where I am nearly ecstatic that I gave up my car in lieu of the big city life.

We’ve also made other sacrifices in terms of living space. While we are close to Lake Michigan, Grant Park, the Bean, and the Theatre District, we chose to buy a smaller condo for now. For us, living in the city means taking advantage of all it has to offer through networking events, theatre, restaurants, happy hours, and spending time at the park.

How Living Small Has Become Big

There are several products on the market that speak to people looking to live in small places so that they can spend their time traveling, exploring their city, or working more. It’s become a trend that has taken the U.S. by storm with a tiny house movement, micro-apartments, and the idea that small is the new black.

Large Developer Enters the Tiny House Market

Property Markets Group (PMG) is entering the co-living market, offering smaller private spaces and prioritizing common areas built to foster interaction. Competitors already in this space include WeLive, Ollie, Common, and others.

But PMG isn’t using a me-too strategy. They are going bigger. PMG has 3,500 units planned in the next five years, built and operated by a new division of the company called PMGx.

This is where things really get exciting – and how PMG is intentionally developing a BrandedWorld around their new offering, delivering a brand experience the market has not yet seen.

It was really the company trying to pull back and look at all of the societal macro trends and saying, if we take out everything that is sort of institutionally known about creating a rental building, what’s the product that makes sense for young professionals?

People are more transient, they have a lot of debt, people are moving to cities and want to own less…there’s a shift in values toward experience over ownership.

Bingo!

PMGx’s First Building is Located in Chicago’s Logan Square Neighborhood

The company’s first building with this concept has 120 units and options to rent a single bedroom and bath in a larger three or four bedroom unit with fully furnished common space and kitchen, or a micro-studio. Following the first Chicago building, plans include a 464-unit building in Miami in 2018, along with another building in Chicago. Later on, the company has plans in the works for Brooklyn, Denver, and other markets.

What Makes PMGx’s Approach Unique?

As a large developer with a 25-year track record, the company has access to resources to build from scratch a building that will best function as an interactive co-living space instead of one that has been reverse-engineered to fit a concept.

One of the strategies that set PMGx apart from other social living concepts is control over every aspect of the designed experience. From the building layout, materials amenities, to the carefully designed common areas that foster interaction, to an app that instantly connects the resident to features such as letting guests in, getting packages from a package locker, pay rent, or make maintenance requests.

While traditional condominium towers are fragmented into separate associations and third-party property management companies, PMGx aims to eliminate the fragmented experience and turn it into a seamless experience with on-site staff participating in events like potlucks and movie screenings.

Because the company has chosen to intentionally design and control the entire experience, they are able to focus on maximizing each detail of the space for socializing.

We designed furniture in a way that sort of forces people to interact. We tend to avoid things like armrests and physical barriers as much as we can so that we can get people to actually sit next to each other.

– Brian Koles, Director of Brand and Tenant Experiences

PMGx is currently constructing a 100-unit luxury social apartment community in Chicago’s University Village neighborhood, opening in Q1 2018.

In essence, PMGx has developed an immersive BrandedWorld around their social apartment community concept. The brand experience is fully immersive, both physically and digitally through the website and mobile app. As these communities get built out around the country, I can envision further immersing tenants and allowing them to experience the social apartment communities in other parts of the country, and eventually the world.

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Are you on board with the luxury social apartment concept? Would you be willing to give up private space in order to gain amenities and a well-crafted social experience? Leave a comment below or connect with me on social.

Over the last few years, AI assistants have been on the rise. First, as a fun feature set, now ingrained as part of our daily lives. The personal brand experience, that is, how you interact with technology and brands is rapidly transforming. But will AI assistants and voice platforms rule the space? Let’s dive in!

What do you think about the voice platform?

Me personally, I’m sort of still a skeptic. Sure, I talk to Siri more – and I can see how voice could come in handy when our hands are occupied and can’t look at a screen. Yet, it’s still in its infancy. Which, I think is the perfect time for brands to take a good hard look at the technology, where it’s headed, and how it fits into their own brandedworld.

The Current Fragmented Brand Experience with Voice

I’ve started to use voice more, talking to Siri and getting comfortable asking for certain tasks to be completed. For example, Siri is great at playing a specific song seamlessly, without any trouble.

However, ask a more detailed question and Siri will provide you with results from an internet search. From there, you must unlock your phone and begin interacting with the screen and Siri, if you choose. As voice assistants become smarter, you can envision how the screen could almost disappear completely.

Sometime in the future, I will be able to have a full conversation with Siri, in which my voice, tone, and descriptions will be interpreted and understood by providing clear, logical answers. Hopefully, I’d also be able to assign Siri tasks to handle on their own, then update me when they are completed via email or text message.

With Amy, I’m able to email her specific tasks related to managing and scheduling upcoming meetings. Just recently, I had asked her to set up a meeting, thinking she’d find dates available for the following week, but not making that clear. Instead, Amy showed real ambition, offering to book a meeting for the following day with the client.

While not the best brand experience for the client, I was able to email Amy and let her know specific days and times for the potential client meeting that may work best. Amy then sent an email to the client, apologized for the incorrect meeting day/time, and offered new times. I was pretty impressed!

As I work more with Amy, I can pinpoint where I can improve my communication with her, which will improve the brand experience with future clients when setting up appointments.

Voice Assistants in the Age of Hacking

For all of the innovative systems we are building to improve our lives and create seamless experiences and reduce stress, there is a dark side that continues to bubble up more and more. Every technological system is a threat, and as we have seen lately, the world is constantly digitally under attack.

I love to live in a world of “what ifs” and predictions of how we might experience the future and interact with brands. In this article, I highlight a few of the bold brand predictions for 2022 and beyond, quoted from top branding experts from around the world. Let’s dive in and imagine the future, shall we?

As 2017 unfolds, the world is rapidly moving to where all brand experiences are becoming seamlessly integrated with technology. Branding as we know it today may become a relic of the past, according to top brand experts.

One of the big questions, as we explore the future, is the separation between who we are and what we buy. Will consumers blindly hand over their data, or will they fight back, forcing companies to change their approach?

I came across a compelling article, written by Suzanne Labarre, which highlights predictions from leading branding experts. It is an exciting time to be in the world of brand building and the strategy behind it.

Below, I will highlight a few of the predictions and share my thoughts on them. You can read the full article on FastCoDesign.

The “Age of You” Will Arrive

The inextricable link between brand and business will become integral to growth, acceleration, and differentiation. The now-maturing startups that have leapt ahead set the standard with founders that inherently understood that the ‘brand is the business’ from day zero. This hard-wiring into systems, experiences, technology, and people will mean greater ability to build deep and personal relationships, soon to be accelerated by AI and the rise of digital assistants. This will drive new levels of, and expectations for, personalization. The ‘Age of You’ is about to become our everyday reality.

I love this prediction by Jez. He nails it on the head when he says that the founders who inherently understand that the ‘brand is the business,’ allows startups to hard-wire that mantra into systems, experiences, technology and people, allowing the brand the ability to build deep and personal relationships. With artificial intelligence and digital assistants on the rise, this will drive new levels of, and an increasingly higher demand for personalization.

We are already beginning to see personalization infiltrate everyday normal experiences. Look for it to rapidly disrupt the brand experience across industries.

Experience Will Replace Identity

As brand identity becomes more mutable and more and more companies come to life in a quickening cycle, the value of the unwavering ‘mark’ will diminish. As a result, corporations will rely more on the experiences that they deliver than on the identity that adorns their headquarters, website, or app. A seamless series of brand experiences will define the modern brand identity; this can be seen in hospitality where the customer’s experience outweighs the logo, as well as successful digital services that generate brand recognition through micro, consistent, repetitive UI and UX interactions, not from a formal brand identity per se.

I see this rapidly changing right in front of my eyes every day. The brand experience, something that I write, talk, and research on frequently, is becoming the prized possession that is driving brands forward. Consumers may end up with a tangible artifact, but they are buying into the experience.

Starbucks is a tremendous example of designing and positioning the brand experience as the prize, just as much, if not more, than the tangible product – the coffee. Starbucks is about being a ‘third place,’ in between work and home. The brand experience that Starbucks delivers on is beginning to outweigh the logo, just as David predicts. Starbucks is ahead of the curve, delivering a seamless experience between the digital and physical worlds, and in doing so, defining a modern brand identity.

Brands Will Market Themselves to Machines

Machines make many decisions on our behalf, and as big brands write the decision rules for soon-to-be-essential assistants (Alexa, Siri, Erica, and any of Facebook’s myriad bots), brands must realize that, in the very near future, before they even get to a customer, they’ll have to appeal to a machine. Call it SEO on steroids. More abstract measures like trust and a company’s track record may give way to more quantifiable traits like quality scores and customer ratings. The key question is: How can your brand be most appealing when decision-making is simplified by machines?

This bold brand prediction is something that brands of all sizes will need to grapple with in the very near future. I agree with John that as the rules are written for soon-to-be essential assistants, brands must realize that they’ll first have to appeal to a machine. New, abstract measures such as trust, a company’s track record, or a brand’s performance score may lend itself to further determine how the brand will appeal to machines in order to reach their customers. Pretty wild stuff.

Predicting the Future of Brands

While we can’t predict the future of brands, we can gauge and imagine what the future may hold. Branding is morphing into a highly personalized, customized experience. We know the future is headed towards a more seamless integration between the physical and digital worlds, even so far as to bring our bodies even more into the fold.

What’s Your Take?

Have you noticed some of the predictions in your line of work? Is your brand prepared to move into this new future reality? Let me know in the comments below or connect with me on Twitter @BWarsinske.

Simon Sinek is one of my favorite authors. I love to cite and share his work with others as it relates to my own work. I caught a talk of his from 99U from 2012 on YouTube the other day – and while nearly 5 years old, the advice, topics, concepts, and stories relate more today than ever. Especially when you then apply them to brand building, strategy, and the experience you are designing. Let’s dive in!

The more I study brand strategy, communications, and business operations, the more I see how the three are closely integrated and aligned. As customers come to expect seamless experiences, all three become critical to a brand delivering on their brand promise consistently.

Business is People

Back in 2008, I came to the same conclusion that Simon talks about in the video below. That conclusion is that business is people. While I don’t think I fully understood the power of that statement, I believed in it enough to have bought and reserved the domain name. In fact, I still own it to this day and know that it will become a valuable asset in the future.

Why is business, people? Well, business is made up of people. Until blockchain companies exist, it still requires people to engage and interact in order to grow a business. Amazon.com is on the cutting edge of automation and now drone delivery, yet they still employ thousands of employees to grow their business and achieve their goals.

What About Brands?

If business is people, what are brands? Brands are an extension or personification of the culture, values, and beliefs of the founders and executives of the company. Cultural values, principles, and beliefs are incredibly important in order to attract the right types of people into your customersphere, or what I call ‘BrandedWorld.’ When a set of beliefs can be transferred from the partners, founders, and executives to the brand, the brand value strengthens.

Why? Because all team members who work for the brand can understand exactly what its purpose is, what it stands for, and what it is working to accomplish. Team members can become empowered to advocate for the brand, working to achieve its goals.

Without these beliefs, brands feel inauthentic when trying to reach out to their target audience. Worse, without these beliefs, team members can struggle to share what the brand stands for, what it does, and the value it provides. Simply put, if you the founder can’t explain what you do, chances are your team members won’t be able to share what the brand does.

Because people are such a big part of business, think about how each individual influences your brand and the decisions it makes. Or the decisions that people make on the brands’ behalf.

Every decision is a piece of communication that represents your brand.

Let that soak in. How are your decisions affecting the perception of your brand? I encourage you to watch the video and think about what Simon is speaking about. Think about how having a brand strategy can help facilitate decision-making and communicate a crystal clear, consistent message across all channels and platforms that your brand engages and interacts on.

It’s a big deal.

Check out the video – I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Simon Sinek: If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business

Let me know your thoughts

What’s your take on Simon’s talk? How important is a brand strategy to your organization? How have having crystal clear values helped in critical decision making situations? Leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter @Bwarsinske.